


First Blood

by sturms_sun_shattered



Series: Rito Chronicles [11]
Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Combat, M/M, friends to something more confusing, novice initiation, warrior culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:55:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28157925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sturms_sun_shattered/pseuds/sturms_sun_shattered
Summary: Gesane and Guy are initiated as novices to the Rito Warriors.
Relationships: Gesane/Guy (Legend of Zelda)
Series: Rito Chronicles [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1757296
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	First Blood

**Author's Note:**

> This is something I've had in my WIPs for a while and I decided to clean up and post.

The sun had only just set, and the sky still glowed purplish-red in the west. Above, the heavens were clear and cold where no cloud cover hung to blanket the world in warmth. The warriors and uninitiated novices had set down on a snow covered rock formation where Hebra Headspring snaked around to become Hebra Plunge. 

“Usli’s kid is going to be the one to break,” Gesane heard Nekk bet Fyrth. “He’s a crier like his dad was.”

From his place near the open fire, Gesane glanced back to where the two warriors stood watch over the bokoblin colony below. He said nothing as they chortled about his long-departed father, but he knew that Guy and Huck had seen him stiffen at the comment.

“Genik said everyone cries when they’re blooded,” Guy assured him quietly.

Huck made a noise of derision from across the fire.

“Except for Huck, because he’s missing that part of his soul,” Guy amended, glancing at Huck in annoyance.

“They’re bokoblins, they don’t have feelings,” Huck scoffed. “They’ll be back on the next blood moon anyway.”

“Novices, to your feet!” called the deep voice of their First Warrior.

Gesane leapt to attention as Kyvoro landed before them. Their First Warrior’s expression was as grim as ever, his dark grey plumage seemingly absorbing the light cast by the fire. Teba landed behind him with an expression that was no less severe.

“Teba, as novice trainer, you set out the rules,” Kyvoro said.

“You will each be given three bokoblins,” Teba told the novices. “They are unarmed, but don’t let that lower your guard; they will still fight you. If you signal for intervention, we will intervene, but you will not move on with your cohort. You must perform two aerial kills and one ground kill. Understood?”

Gesane nodded his head and saw Huck and Guy nodding as well. As Teba gestured for Huck to follow them, Gesane and Guy sat back down by the fire. Gesane could already feel his wings shaking, and tried to remind himself that this was the purpose of a warrior. Every warrior he had ever known—Teba, Kyvoro, his father, even softhearted Genik—had all managed to make their first kills.

Behind them, Nekk and Fyrth laughed a little as they watched Huck descend on his prey.

“That’s the way!” called Nekk.

“Ooo...lucky he dodged that one...”

“Don’t listen to them,” said Guy as he saw Gesane glance back to Nekk and Fyrth.

“I know,” nodded Gesane, though nerves were making him a little light-headed. “It’s just like hunting. We just have to treat it like hunting.”

“Right,” agreed Guy, though Gesane could see he didn’t look so steady right now either.

Huck landed on the rock with a victorious whoop and Nekk clapped him on the shoulder. He strutted out his exhilaration at the kill, and Gesane wondered if his own relief upon finishing this task would be as appalling as Huck’s—he hoped not.

“Gesane,” said Genik as he landed on the rocks. “Teba says it’s your turn.”

“You’ll be fine,” Guy encouraged Gesane as he stood.

“Yeah,” Gesane agreed breathlessly.

Gesane joined Genik on the lip of the stony drop-off and gazed down at the pines and rocks which jutted from the snowy ground. Below, Teba, Kyvoro and Harth stood ready to cut the bonds on the bokoblins they had acquired for this purpose. To Gesane, it all seemed unbearably cruel.

“Remember,” said Genik, seeing the hesitation in his expression. “They come back.”

Gesane nodded and tried to calm himself as Genik flew out to signal the three warriors below. At Genik’s whistled signal, he took flight and circled the snowfield where the bokoblins pointed up at him and screeched. He easily avoided the rocks and snowballs the bokoblins hurled up at him by gaining a little height.

There was no point in putting this off, Gesane decided. He took a deep breath and pulled the bow from his back and sighted his first target. As he released the drawstring and his arrow impacted flesh, the world seemed to slow down for a moment. The bokoblin screeched for but an instant, before it curled into smoke.

Catching the bow in his talons, Gesane righted himself in flight. He took down his next target with two arrows, and did not spare the creature a second thought. As his feet touched frozen ground, he shouldered his bow, and the third bokoblin squealed and charged toward him. 

Gesane drew his feathered edge and went in for a fatal blow without hesitation. The blade buried in its throat, the bokoblin clawed helplessly at his wing until it fell to pieces with a gurgle.

Grisly task completed, Gesane stood panting among the piles of viscera, his soiled blade still clutched in his hand. It had been easy. As Genik handed him a rough rag to wipe down his blade Gesane looked around at the guts which had begun to freeze in the snow. It should have been more difficult to take a life, he thought, even ones so loathsome as these creatures.

“You passed,” Genik assured him as he wiped the ooze from his blade.

Gesane nodded and sheathed his blade. Though relieved by this news, he felt suddenly exhausted, and took wing to return to the formation above. As Gesane landed near the fire, Guy stood and glanced down at Gesane’s wing.

“Are you bleeding?”

“I guess so,” said Gesane, seeing that a little blood had welled up between his feathers where the bokoblin had scratched him.

“Guy,” called Teba from the edge of the drop-off. “Prepare yourself.”

“It’s not so bad,” Gesane assured Guye as he headed toward the ledge.

Gesane stared after his friend as Guy stood at the edge of the formation, preparing himself for his trial. At Teba’s whistle, Guy took off above the trees, and Gesane watched him unsling his bow and drop into a dive. 

Behind him Huck let out a contemptuous laugh and Gesane turned. Huck sat by the fire looking pleased with himself, still energized from his victory.

“What are you laughing at?” Gesane asked.

“You. You’re so fucking solemn.”

Gesane turned away from Huck and went to stand along the ledge so that he might watch Guy’s attempt. Guy had already taken out one bokoblin and was climbing high in the sky with his bow in his talons to target the second. It took three arrows to finish his second kill. When Guy finally dropped to the snow and drew his blade, he hesitated. It was only once the bokoblin had charged him that Guy attempted to fight back. Gesane winced as Guy rolled in the snow, finally delivering the killing blow when the bokoblin had leapt on top of him.

Covered in viscera, Guy sat up in the snow and threw down his blade. Gesane watched as he shook the ooze from his feathers as well as he could and fell forward on his wings in clear distress.

“Didn’t think it’d be Ralazo’s kid,” remarked Nekk.

Guy had not still bothered to get up from the snow by the time Genik had landed by his side to try and calm him.

“Ha! I didn’t see that coming,” laughed Huck from where he had come to stand beside Gesane.

Gesane could see that Teba and Kyvoro remained impassive where they stood back near the empty monster camp, but Harth seemed to find this all very amusing. Unable to stand the sight a moment longer, Gesane leaped from his perch and glided down to Guy.

“It’s alright,” Gesane heard Genik assured Guy, his wing on his shoulder. “This is common.”

Snow crunching beneath him, Gesane crouched before Guy as he wiped at his tears and tried to catch his breath. Up close, Gesane could see the slime that still clung to Guy’s feathers and leather armour from his graceless kill.

“It wasn’t really like hunting,” Guy said as he registered Gesane’s presence.

“No...not quite,” Gesane agreed seriously.

Guy reached out and Gesane let him hold the tip of his wing for a moment. Gesane would have returned the gesture, but he feared to show weakness in front of some of the warriors present.

“Huck’s watching us,” Gesane warned under his breath, careful not to glance up to the ledge above them.

Guy inhaled shakily and Gesane adjusted his grip on Guy’s wing to help him stand. When Gesane withdrew, Guy didn’t want to let him go, but with the hostility around them, Gesane wasn’t willing to provoke a reaction from Huck or the other warriors.

As the warriors around them prepared to leave, Guy dug anxiously at his coverts with his beak. Gesane wished he could do something more than stand and stare.

“We’re heading out,” Teba called to them.

“C’mon,” Gesane quietly encouraged, a hesitant wing on Guy’s back.

“It’s alright, I’m ready,” said Guy, and he set out after the others.

After they had flown out and the novices had debriefed with Teba and Kyvoro back at the Flight Range, Kyvoro dismissed them. Unwilling to invite the First Warrior’s ire, the novices took off in the direction the village. 

Still elated from his first kills, Huck was ready to fight anything from a bokoblin to a bear, and Guy and Gesane had a difficult time shaking him. Eventually, Huck tired and returned home when they proved to be unwilling participants in some reckless excursion, and Gesane and Guy set down on the second stack.

“Are you certain you’re alright?” Gesane asked, seeing Guy’s downcast expression.

Guy nodded.

“What happened to your wing?” Guy asked, a strange numbness still in his voice.

“I’m not entirely sure. I’ll cleanse it when I get home...are you really certain?” Gesane pressed.

“I didn’t think it would affect me so badly.”

“I know,” Gesane agreed.

Guy looked so desolate in his stained cuirass that Gesane could not help but reach out and wrap him in his wings. As Guy rested his beak on his shoulder, Gesane felt wings snake beneath his.

“I don’t want to do it again...but I know that killing is all that’s ahead of us,” Guy whispered.

“We were born into warrior families,” sighed Gesane. “It’s strange that there’s no way to break free.”

“My parents are going to come looking for me soon,” Guy said as he reluctantly pulled away.

“Best not worry them,” agreed Gesane, though he would have happily spent the rest of the night with Guy.

Gesane hated the thought of returning to his own mother, his soul now stained with blood. He desperately wished that Guy would stay a little longer, but Gesane was well aware that Khedli would not hesitate to track down her son if he was out too late.

“See you tomorrow for training,” Guy said listlessly.

“Yeah.”

Before he took off, Guy leaned in and quickly bumped his beak against Gesane’s in a quick and clumsy motion. 

As Guy caught the winds above the lake back to his family’s roost, Gesane stared after him in surprise. By the time Gesane understood what had happened, Guy had already disappeared into the night. Gesane knew this to be something that happened among spouses and those who were betrothed to one another...and something Guy had attempted with most of the Rito maidens they knew. 

For a moment Gesane wondered if he should be offended that it had happened, but realized he had so enjoyed it that he wished Guy had stayed so he might return the gesture of affection.


End file.
